Custom feeds can be created using our Web-based feed builder, which offers two modes: a simple point-and-click Visual Selector, and the more powerful HTML-tags-based Advanced Refinement.

Our API (short for Application Programming Interface) is another great way to programmatically build, manage or integrate custom feeds.
The API also allows automatic creation of feeds from webpages, by utilizing our feed parser's powerful machine learning capabilities to auto-detect relevant content for a feed from its source.

Overview

The Feedity API is organized around REST, which is based on HTTP application protocol, making the API model simple, high-performance, and language-agnostic.

Our API has resource-oriented URLs, and uses HTTP response codes to indicate an API operation status or error. We use built-in HTTP features, like HTTP authentication and HTTP verbs, which are understood by most HTTP clients and libraries.

The API endpoint for standard accounts is mentioned below. Corporate plan customers must follow & use the corporate site API reference, for corresponding URLs and notes.

https://feedity.com/api/v1
API responses are returned as JSON (default) or XML, based on the request's HTTP 'Accept' header value for content negotiation (note: use 'application/json' or 'application/xml' MIME types). API request and response examples are provided below.

We can make backwards-compatible changes to the API at any time. We will release a new version of the API endpoint if any major backwards-incompatible changes are made. API related announcements are made via our newsletter (sent to all customers), on our blog and Twitter profile.

Authentication

You must authenticate your account by including your API key and secret in all API requests.

Your API key and secret can be found under your account, once you've signed-up for a plan that supports API access. You can change the API secret from your account at any time. Be sure to keep your API key and secret safe, as they allow access to your account data. Do not share your API key or secret in publicly accessible areas, client-side code etc. If you suspect that your API secret has been exposed, then change it immediately under your account.

Authentication to the API is performed via HTTP Basic Auth. Provide your API key as the basic auth username value, and the secret as the password value. Most HTTP clients allow a HTTP 'Authorization' header value, that should be set to a Base64 encoded string of your API key and secret combined with a colon.

Here's a 'curl' command line example with the HTTP 'Authorization' header, that can be translated to any programming language or library:

curl https://feedity.com/api/v1/feeds -u [API_key]:[Secret] ...
You can also authenticate via Bearer auth, in which case, set the HTTP 'Authorization' header value to a Base64 encoded string token of your API key and secret combined with a colon:

Codes in the 5xx range, although rare, indicate a server error caused when our API servers fail to fulfill a request.

API access is rate-limited, but sufficient for high-throughput. Excessive API calls in a very short period, or any type of abuse, will automatically cause access to be revoked for the violating account, and eventual account termination without notice.

Feeds

A feed object describes a new or existing feed in your account.

The feed object

Attributes

title string

Given title/name of the feed.

sourceUrl string

URL of the feed's source webpage or data resource.

feedRssUrl string

RSS feed URL. Also used as a unique identifier for the feed object.

created timestamp

Time (UTC) at which the feed object was created.Measured in seconds since the Unix epoch.

checked timestamp

Time (UTC) at which the feed's source webpage was last checked for an update.Measured in seconds since the Unix epoch.

extractImages boolean

Has the value 'true' if images can be extracted from the feed's source webpage, else has the value 'false'.

merged boolean

Has the value 'true' if the feed is selected by the user to be merged in a combined 'stream' feed, else has the value 'false'.

active boolean

Has the value 'true' if the feed is active, else has the value 'false' if the feed is inactive or broken.

lastCheckFailed boolean

Has the value 'true' if the last check of the feed's source failed (due to being repeatedly inaccessible or no articles found), else has the value 'false'.

List all feeds

Retrieve a list of existing feeds from the user account, as a collection of feed objects, along with a total count.

Method & endpoint

GET https://feedity.com/api/v1/feeds

Arguments not required

Returns

A dictionary is returned, with a 'data' property that contains an array of feed objects, and a 'count' property that contains the number of feed objects. If no feeds exist, the resulting array will be empty.

Create a feed

Create a new feed, and get its object. The feed will be saved in the user account, if the user plan's feeds allowance permits (i.e. within limit).

Our feed parser will use heuristics and machine learning to try & detect relevant content settings for the feed from its source webpage. This is an experimental feature, that works best for news articles on sparse webpages. If auto-detection doesn't find any relevant articles, then the feed is marked as broken, so that it can be manually edited with the feed builder, similar to when auto-detected results are unsatisfactory.

Method & endpoint

POST https://feedity.com/api/v1/feeds

Arguments

title required string

Given title/name for the new feed.

sourceUrl required string

URL of the new feed's source webpage.

detectAll optional booleanEXPERIMENTAL

Set to 'true' if all possible feed item elements (title, link, summary/description, image and publication date) should be auto-detected by the feed parser, if your current plan permits. Else set to 'false' (default) to only detect title and link for feed items.

Returns

A feed object is returned, if the new feed is successfully saved in the user account. Object's 'checked' timestamp property value will be zero (0), because the first source check will be pending.

Delete a feed

Delete an existing feed from the user account. Deleted feeds cannot be restored.

Method & endpoint

DELETE https://feedity.com/api/v1/feeds

Arguments

feedRssUrl required string

RSS feed URL for your feed to be deleted, sent as a querystring parameter (see example below).

Returns

An empty body with a 'success' status code is returned if the feed was found & deleted. Otherwise, this call returns an error, if the feed was not found in the user account, or already deleted, or the feed couldn't be deleted due to a server error.